Finding Sub-contractors

According to the Draft Preferential Procurement Regulations, 30% of all Government Contracts above R30 million must be sub-contracted to specific categories of SMME’s. These categories are:

Black female owned EME’s or QSE’s;

Black youth owned EME’s or QSE’s;

Black owned EME’s or QSE’s.

Once the new Regulations are gazetted there businesses will need to find sub-contractors to fill this requirement.

By implementing the 30% sub-contracting rule Government is trying to spread the wealth that comes with winning a tender. This will be good for growing SMME’s in future.

But where are large businesses that respond to tenders, or for that matter any business, going to find sub-contractors?

The answer is Briefing Sessions, or Information Sessions, (as it is also known), which are usually compulsory for all bidders that want to respond to a specific tender. For this reason, everyone attempting to win a specific tender has to attend Briefing Sessions or Information Sessions.

At these Briefing Sessions you will meet all types of businesses – from large Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed companies to the small one-man operations or sole proprietors. Sometimes, small businesses won’t necessarily be able to comply with all the requirements of a tender and therefor their tender responses will be unsuccessful whereas large businesses will comply and their tender responses will be successful.

These Briefing Sessions are a place where potential sub-contracting deals can be made between the successful bidder and the smaller unsuccessful, but capable, bidder.

It is important to remember that for a business to become a sub-contractor it will have to be a running concern. Large businesses will only use dependable sub-contractors with a proven track record. So make sure you attend Briefing Sessions and network with all the other bidders as well.

To learn more about this and many other tender conditions attend one of the How-to-Tender workshops. www.how2tender.com.

Pages

Tender adjudication process

The SBD/WCBD6.1 document must form part of all bids invited. It contains general information and serves as a claim form for preference points for Broad -Based Black Economic Empowerment (B -BBEE) Status Level of Contribution, and explains how tenders or bids are decided.

The document says:

The bidder obtaining the highest number of points will be awarded the contract.

Preference points shall be calculated after prices have been brought to a comparative basis.